​Turkey human rights violations slammed by Amnesty International

(JNS.org) Amnesty
International slammed Turkey in a new report for committing human rights
violations “on a huge scale” during the Gezi Park protests and their aftermath
last summer.

“The attempt to smash the Gezi Park protest
movement involved a string of human rights violations on a huge scale. They
include the wholesale denial of the right to peaceful assembly and violations
of the rights to life, liberty and the freedom from torture and ill-treatment,”
Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s expert on Turkey, said in a statement.

Protests erupted in Gezi Park in June over
plans to redevelop the landmark park. The initial demonstrations then evolved
into widespread protests against the Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and its increasingly authoritarian policies. The report, titled Gezi Park protests: Brutal
denial of the right to peaceful assembly in Turkey details how police and security forces used excessive force,
including live ammunition, tear gas, water cannons, plastic bullets and
beatings on protestors, that left three people dead and over 8,000 injured.

The report also documents that chemical
irritants were added to water cannons, female protestors were sexually abused
by police, and tear gas was fired at innocent bystanders and sometimes into
residential buildings or medical facilities.

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